The Thirst

THE THIRST

One nation. One chance. One winner.

In a world where water is worth more than gold, the Crown has everything-and the Rings have learned to survive on what is left.

Every year, the Crown selects Carriers to enter the Games: a televised fight for survival where weapons are provided, sponsors place their bets, and the winner earns the one thing that can change a family's life forever-Crown citizenship.

For those selected, there is no glory in being chosen.

Only survival.

Elias doesn't expect to win. He knows what happens to contestants. He only hopes to last long enough to give his family something to remember him by.

Kael never expected to be chosen at all. An anthro born beyond the Rings, he has spent his life knowing that his kind will never be accepted as citizens. When a contestant flees his selection and is killed live on television, Kael is chosen as the replacement simply because he was standing nearby.

Thrown together in a brutal wasteland with little water and fewer reasons to trust anyone, Elias and Kael should be enemies.

But something is wrong with the Games.

The anthros are going feral.

The Crown says it is proof of what they have always feared.

But as the bodies pile up and the contestants turn against one another, Maybe the monsters aren't who the Crown told them to fear.
And this year, the Games may not end with the winner the Crown intended.